Big|Brave Removes the Drums, Finds New Textures on ‘in grief or in hope’

For more than a decade, Big|Brave have built their sound around heavy drones and the interplay of guitarists Matthieu Ball and Robin Wattie. On their ninth album, in grief or in hope, they subtract a central element: drums. Joined only by touring bassist Liam Andrews (MY DISCO), Ball and Wattie push their compositions into a more exposed, textural space, where distortion and voice do all the rhythmic work.

The result is not quieter or less intense. On “the ineptitude of mutual discernment,” the roar is as overwhelming as ever, but it’s tempered by a mournful core as Wattie sings about moral judgment. The title track layers fuzz and phased feedback into a coarse, prickly landscape beneath her repeated question: “When does one feel the most—in grief or in hope?” Without a kick drum, the crackle of distortion becomes its own percussion.

There’s a kinship with Low’s later experiments on Double Negative, where the absence of familiar elements revealed new emotional depths. “a shape of shame” works similarly: distant, ghostly booms and metallic acoustic textures hover as Wattie’s voice rises from a murmur to a howl. Stripped back but never minimalist, these seven songs find Big|Brave refining their language, proving that restraint can amplify the weight of each note.